PAMBAZUKA NEWS 87
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 87
Le Sociètè Femmes Rurales Parakou is a female rights activist group formed on the 5th of January 2001.We focus on the emancipation of rural women and girls in Bènin from traditional cultural practices which are discriminatory, hazardous to health and impedes the development of the female gender.
Based in Borgu department in Parakou prèfecturè, we are presently working in eight sous-prèfecturès, or local governments. We are made up of mostly women and girls - farmers, housewives and young unmarried girls. The executive of the group is made up of five women lead by Dr. Patience Alfa, a medical practitioner in private service. The only other professional in the group is Ms. Immacullatta Sovi, a legal practitioner and the secretary.
On 12 October 2002, security forces barred five journalists from the "Times of Swaziland" and the "Swazi Observer" and a foreign freelance reporter from covering the proceedings of a prayer meeting organised by different political and social groups in Swaziland. The prayer meeting, termed Justice for Peace, was organised in memory of families that were evicted from the Macetjeni (south-eastern Swaziland) and KaMkhweli areas in October 2000.
Following upon the success of our region-based institute in South Africa during the past four years, we are pleased to announce the fifth Democracy & Diversity Graduate Summer Institute in Cape Town, South Africa. In an intensive two-week program, an international body of junior scholars and activists engaged in questions of civil society will examine critical issues of democracy and democratization as they manifest themselves in this region and beyond.
During the months of October, November, and December, ARISE will be holding a series of email based discussions on various ICT topics. These discussions will be held with the goal of utilizing our network of African professionals to discuss the key issues in building the Information Society in Africa and to produce an African Research Agenda for the Information Society.
First Lady Marcelina Chissano has denied intimidating any of the country's journalists, and has demanded that her "good name and right to privacy be respected." A letter sent by her lawyer, Augusto Macedo Pinto, to the independent weekly "Mediafax", and published on 1 November 2002, also stressed that the first lady wanted to see the case of the murder of Carlos Cardoso, the newspaper's founding editor, "resolved as rapidly as possible, and the guilty parties tried and sentenced." The letter, which made no explicit threat of legal action, was clearly in response to claims made a month ago that the first lady had sent mysterious gifts of live chickens to "Mediafax" editor Marcelo Mosse, Fernando Lima, chairman of the board of Mediacoop (the company that owns the newspaper), and Kok Nam, director of the Mediacoop weekly "Savana".
Feminist Africa is a publication which has grown out of the African Gender Institute's many years of commitment to capacity-building, research, networking and teaching in an environment in which market-oriented approaches now threaten to undermine progressive African gender initiatives. FA provides a platform for cutting-edge, informative and provocative gender work attuned to African agendas. As the first journal on gender with a continental focus, it provides a forum for the publication and dissemination of high quality feminist scholarship in African contexts.
Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ) lawyers have told the Zimbabwe Independent that a Supreme Court hearing of the case in which journalists are challenging the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) would open on 21 November.
The Chairperson, the National Governing Council and the Secretariat of the Media Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe Chapter would like to congratulate Mr. Iden Wetherell, the editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, on being honoured by the World Press Review as the Editor of the Year. We believe that such an award is a confirmation of the hard work and commitment to the highest ideals of journalism by the staff at the Zimbabwe Independent and hope that they will continue excelling despite the difficult media environment.
The first soldiers of a 350-man regional peacekeeping force are due to arrive "early this week" in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), Gen Lamine Cisse, the Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in the CAR, told IRIN on Sunday. The regional force is to replace a Libyan contingent of some 200 men that has been stationed in CAR since the failed 28 May 2001 coup by former President Andre Kolingba. It will be responsible for protecting President Ange-Felix Patasse, restructuring the CAR's armed forces, and monitoring the CAR-Chad border zones.
During talks held on 1 November in the South African administrative capital, Pretoria, Presidents Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Paul Kagame of Rwanda agreed to an extra 90 days to implement the Pretoria peace accord. The accord, signed on 30 July, committed Rwanda to withdrawing its troops from DRC territory in return for the demobilisation and repatriation of Rwandan Hutu Interahamwe militias and former armed forces, who had sought refuge in the DRC following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Burundian rebels have launched several fresh attacks against government forces despite progress at ceasefire talks between the two sides, being held in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam.
Cases of polio reported in Nigeria this year have raised doubts about the country's ability to meet its target of eradicating the disease by the end of the year, a UNICEF official said on Saturday. A total of 124 cases were recorded in 14 states between January and July 2002, UNICEF's Caroline Atosile told a sensitisation workshop at Ota, near Lagos.
Eight members of the political wing of a Rwandan Hutu rebel group, who were refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), were expelled from the country on Wednesday.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern at the rejection of Nigeria's first Children's Bill by the country's House of Representatives. A news release on Friday quoted the officer-in-charge of UNICEF Nigeria, Roger Wright, as saying the decision was a blow to efforts to ensure that all children in the country fully enjoyed their rights.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR has said it is not aware of plans for the forced repatriation of Eritrean refugees from Sudan following assertions by Asmara that Eritreans are being "relocated" by the Sudanese authorities. According to the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission (ERREC), the Sudanese authorities have "started deviating" from agreed procedures on the repatriation of Eritrean refugees.
Efforts to mitigate the impact of erratic rainfall on agricultural production in drought-prone southern Malawi have begun to bear fruit. Through the provision of 80 simple treadle pumps, which cost about US $27 each, World Vision has been able to use the donations of 3,000 Australian families to lessen the impact of drought on the southern Mlolo area.
What started out as a peaceful demonstration against a proposed third term for President Bakili Muluzi turned violent last Friday when police clashed with protestors in Blantyre, the country's commercial centre. Shops remained closed as armed paramilitary police fought running street battles with demonstrators, barring them from continuing with a protest against a proposed third term for Muluzi.
Burkina Faso has at least 165,000 migrant labourers aged six to 17 years and half of them work abroad - mainly in Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Benin - a study on child labour migration shows. Most of the young migrant labourers were boys, according to the study by the NGO Terre des Hommes and the World Bank.
Massive violations of human rights are still continuing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), especially in areas controlled by the country's two main rebel groups - the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie and the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo - says the United Nations. A new report by the UN Special Rapporteur probing conditions in the DRC, Iulia Motoc, said that in rebel-held areas, especially in eastern DRC, "no human, civil, political, economic or social rights are observed".
The Danish government has given the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) US $2.6 million for refugees and their host communities in Zambia's Western Province. "The money will be spent on health, schools, community projects and social services in refugee hosting communities," UNHCR spokesman Kelvin Shimo told IRIN.
"SATELLIFE Health Information Project" from the United States was one of the two winning projects at the 2002 Stockholm Challenge Award in the "Health" category. SATELLIFE uses multiple technologies - from satellites to modems - to connect health professionals to critical information in under-resourced areas. In rural Africa, manual health surveys are expensive, inadequate, inaccurate and slow. The project uses PDAs to collect timely public health data, return it to policy-makers and explore appropriate affordable technology for the environment. In a Ghanaian trial programme, 30 volunteers trained on the PDAs and completed over 2,400 surveys within five days. The data were analysed and the report delivered in six days instead of the usual four to six months.
An outmoded land tenure system, poor farming methods and adverse weather patterns have subjected more than a quarter of the population to imminent starvation. The solution, the government says, is the formation of agricultural co-operatives.
A consortium of women's development and human rights groups of South Kivu Province has made an impassioned plea to all stakeholders in the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to resolve their differences and to channel their efforts into establishing a peaceful and stable nation.
At the end of 2001, there were 28.1 million sub-Saharan Africans living with HIV/Aids. The overall prevalence of HIV among sub-Saharan African adults, ages 15 to 49 years, is estimated to be an astounding 8.4 percent.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international media watchdog, says the environment for media freedom in Namibia has changed for the worse since President Sam Nujoma took over the Information and Broadcasting Ministry portfolio.
Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab made an impassioned plea to commercial farmers to "change their hearts and minds" to avoid Zimbabwe-style land grabs. Speaking to members of the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) - which represents commercial farmers' interests - Gurirab said last week's eviction of six families who had lived for several decades on a farm near Gobabis should not be seen in isolation.
Women are 75 times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa than in developed regions. Reducing maternal mortality is therefore high on the international health agenda. But how effective are current efforts to improve maternal health in developing countries?
Research two decades ago showed that malaria infection in pregnant Gambian women increased the health risks for mother and baby. A new study by the Medical Research Council Laboratories in Fajara shows that the situation has not improved. Why have policy-makers failed to implement strategies to protect pregnant women?
Malaria prevention using insecticide-treated bednets (ITNs) can increase child survival, reduce illness among pregnant women and improve birth outcomes. But what is the best way to deliver ITNs to those at risk? Researchers from the Kenya Medical Research Institute, UNICEF and the Kenyan Ministry of Health assessed the success of a scheme to distribute free ITNs to pregnant women.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has restrained the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), from investigating the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Umar Na'Abba, his aides and officers over alleged fraudulent withdrawal of N160 million from the reserves of the House.
This paper starts from the position that trade liberalisation is not an end itself, and that for trade to be meaningful, it has to deliver some growth not just to a country, but also to all its citizens, especially the most disadvantaged. Trade policies should both protect and strengthen the capacity of nations and their citizens to address issues of poverty and social exclusion. Growth should be socially equitable and environmentally sustainable. Therefore, the central question for an analysis of the impact of trade policies from a gender perspective is whether trade liberalisation perpetuates, accentuates or erodes existing gender inequalities, and whether it promotes or hinders the eradication of poverty among women who are the poorest of poor.
Recent years have seen growing international debate about the ethics of conducting medical research in developing countries. Although many of the issues at stake do not differ in kind from those in more developed countries, the limited resources available within developing countries may exacerbate the problems faced. In addition, imbalances in power between the stakeholders in research - which can include multinational pharmaceutical companies, publicly funded researchers, national governments, and participants - can increase the risk of exploitation of the more vulnerable parties.
The financial cost of climate change is already huge and is likely to increase in future years, according to a new report, Natural Catastrophes 2002. Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, has called on industrialised nations to "take action to help the poorer parts of the world adapt, to help them cope with the more unstable and more extreme environments likely in the coming decade".
The Centre seeks to appoint a dynamic and visionary Executive Director. He/she will ensure that the Centre fulfils its mission and goals; has a high level of expertise in relation to these goals; retains its national and international reputation for excellence; adapts to significant political and other changes in the external environment; conducts its business in a professional manner; is financially viable and sustainable; and has strict financial controls.
How countries treat those who have been forced to flee persecution and human rights abuse elsewhere is a litmus test of their commitment to defending human rights and upholding humanitarian values. Yet, fifty years after its inception, the states that first established a formal refugee protection system are abandoning this principle, and the future of the international refugee regime is under serious threat.
Millions of children's lives are being lost or blighted because pledges to take action to curb the spread of malaria have not been kept, either by heads of state in poor countries or by wealthy donor states, a leading economist says. Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, launched a hard-hitting attack on leaders in both the affluent north and the poor south on the eve of a UN general assembly session on malaria which will assess progress since the pledges two years ago at an African summit on malaria.
President Daniel arap Moi's maneuverings ahead of December 27 elections could be taking place with the tacit approval of the Bush administration. A Washington Post report emphasised the importance of Kenya within the Horn of Africa region and its strategic importance in the US government’s planned war against Iraq. “The future of this East African nation has become increasingly important to the United States because Kenya is a relatively stable American ally in a neighbourhood that includes the warring nations of Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda and Congo. It may also be crucial if the United States decides to attack Iraq. Under agreements with the United States, Kenya could lend its Indian ocean bases,” the Post states.
"NEPAD is better understood as being in the category of empty lip-service to principles of gender equality. In principle NEPAD is much in favour of equal rights for women, but in practice it proposes almost nothing in the form of action to realise these principles," according to a paper presented at an NGO Forum held between October 14-16 in Banjul, The Gambia. The paper, authored by Sara Hlupekile Longwe, a feminist consultant and chairperson of the African Women's Development and Communications Network (FEMNET), discusses how women's gender issues have been ignored in the framework for African development adopted by African countries under the acronym NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development). The paper was distributed by Africa Action.
IFESH is initiating a new project in Liberia, beginning in January 2003. Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Liberia Integrated Civil Society Development Initiative is to assist in the country's transition from a state of conflict to one of rehabilitation and development by helping local communities become more actively engaged in the country's social, economic and political development.
The Country Director (CD), based in Bujumbura, Burundi, is responsible for providing overall leadership to the country office's program, financial, human resources, and administrative management. This includes oversight of the development, implementation and evaluation of high quality country office strategic annual plans for programs that are in support of CARE's worldwide purpose and strategic directions.
Michael Maren shows that the international aid industry is a big business more concerned with winning its next big government contract than helping needy people. The problem isn't a lack of charity missions in the Third World, but that the best intentions of these idealists are often inadvertently destructive, thanks to a deadly combination of their naiveté and the willingness of native elites to exploit them. Maren spent many years in Africa living this life. This is a splendid, literate, muckraking memoir of his experiences.
At least 10 children have starved to death among drought-stricken families who fled to one of Ethiopia's most important national parks seeking refuge. The children were among some 20,000 people who have descended on Bale National Park in search of food, according to the UN's Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia (EUE).
An end to poverty, access to a good education and healthcare, freedom from violence, protection of reproductive rights, and sustainable livelihoods are still basic objectives of gender equality work worldwide. This paper takes this historical gender equality work as a given, and instead highlights both the shifting backdrop for this work, as well as new considerations and work agendas that have emerged in our efforts towards gender equality. From militarization to globalization, a fast-changing global terrain is dictating new challenges and new ways of approaching the women's rights agenda. This discussion paper explores these trends as well as the convergence of work inside the fields of gender and development and women's rights. Also presented here, is an overview of the ways in which gender equality advocates are trying to improve how we understand and confront gender inequality.
A Nigerian Woman, Amina Lawal, has been sentenced to death by stoning because she had a baby out of wedlock. You can help save Amina Lawal's life by sending an email to the Nigerian Ambassador. Additional details are on the Medical Advocates' Advocacy News web site.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s top expert on Zimbabwe says the country is on the brink of an economic crisis that will make the current hardships seem like child's play. Gerry Johnson, the IMF's resident representative to Zimbabwe, said government mismanagement could soon plunge the nation into a hyperinflationary spiral that would bring the economy to its knees - possibly before year's end.
What are the fundamental needs for development fieldwork? Of course there are technical skills, experience and organisation. But to surpass the status quo of fieldwork, to achieve real impact, it is also crucial to be innovative, flexible, interactive and collaborative. To be willing to break some of the old conventions and think "out of the box." This is according to the organisation CARE, who are showcasing their community based water and sanitation projects in Western Kenya.
The 17,000 Sudanese refugees who fled ethnic violence two weeks ago in a refugee settlement, about 80 km west of the town of Aru on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, are "trickling back" to their settlements, Kitty McKinsey, regional public information officer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told IRIN on Tuesday.
The Open Knowledge Network is an initiative of the G8 Digital Opportunity Taskforce (DOTForce) linking together existing grassroots information and knowledge-sharing initiatives to promote both the creation and the exchange of local content as widely as possible across the South, supported by a range of different information and communication technologies. The programme is coordinated by OneWorld International and its network of southern offices. See for more information. The Project Manager, located in Africa, will be responsible for planning, coordinating and delivering OKN activities in the region, based on building solid relationships with a range of stakeholders (especially at grassroots level) in a pan-African context.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) requires closer international financial supervision if the war-damaged nation is to fight official corruption, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) expert said last Friday. As the vast nation extracts itself from a four-year regional war, it must create a transparent government and banking system, said Jean Clement, assistant director of the IMF Africa Department, who is in Kinshasa to conduct an economic review.
Hundreds of millions of pounds supposedly being paid by western oil companies to the government of Angola have been discovered going into secret offshore accounts in Jersey. The Lloyds TSB offshore accounts in the name of the Angolan state oil company, Sonangol, include cash payments by the companies to the government in return for exploration permits in the booming Angolan deep water oil fields.
Nigeria has put the blame for the endemic corruption in the country at the doorsteps of the international community which it accused of accepting looted fund from public officers. The attorney-general and minister of justice, Chief Godwin Kanu Agabi said that Nigeria's classification as the second most corrupt country in the world is untrue and a design to humiliate the citizens.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has again appealed to Nigerians to join the government in its crusade against corruption in the country. He said bribery and corruption were continued problems for the country.
Talisman Energy Inc. has finally bitten the bullet and shed its controversial oil investment in Sudan, making a determined bunch of human rights activists and church groups extremely happy. "We have here an extraordinary example of grassroots activism forcing a Fortune 500 company to withdraw from an extremely lucrative venture, because that venture is immoral," Eric Reeves, an English professor at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and a tireless opponent of Talisman's Sudanese activities, told The Globe and Mail last week.
If the plight of women in war is to be improved, the United Nations and governments must make a greater effort to include women in all aspects of peace operations, including crafting peace and reconciliation programs acording to the Independent Experts Assessment on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and the Role of Women in Peacebuilding, launched by UNIFEM this week.
I wonder how many people could name the capital of the Central African Republic? Or even locate it on a map. At the moment there is intense fighting going on there. This is the fifth day of fighting in the capital city of the CAR. The conflict centres on insurgents trying to oust the President, Ange Felix Patasse. These insurgents supposedly comprise the supporters of a former army chief, General Francois Bozize, who has just returned to France, says this commentary on the Dialogue Webpage for Conflicts Worldwide.
Dialogue Webpage for Conflicts Worldwide say, in a paper on their website on Africa and conflict prevention, that adequate capacity for an Early Warning System that provides advance information on the root causes of crises should be engineered. They say that democratic governance should be institutionalisedand concerted efforts made to deal with the problem of poverty.
Echoes of the controversial 2001 national media tour, sponsored by the Nigerian government reverberated in Ogun State, South-West Nigeria, as President Olusegun Obasanjo described the award of marks to states by the tour organizers as "misleading". The president who was speaking during his three-day visit to his home state said the result of the tour created the impression that a lot was being done in the new states because new infrastructure had to be provided while neglecting the challenges of the older states where the rehabilitation of existing infrastructure will command more attention.
Goals set two years ago by African leaders to reduce the incidence of malaria have not been met, according to a report presented by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the U.N. General Assembly, the Washington Times reports. According to malaria activists, the resources of programs aimed at fighting malaria - which is preventable and curable yet kills approximately 2.7 million people each year -- are being "drain[ed]" by efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.
This paper, written for policy makers, considers the role education has to play in both preventing and mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS. The strategy outlined in the document identifies key priorities for a scaled up response to the epidemic on the part of schools and the education system more generally. The report focuses on formal educational institutions as important in the delivery of prevention and mitigation measures, but also recognises that many of the young people affected by the epidemic are not attending school and that the epidemic has an impact on schools' ability to deliver effective education.
With the next African meningitis outbreak possibly less than two months away and amid the threat of an uncommon strain that could undermine vaccination efforts, the International Federation of the Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontieres, UNICEF and the World Health Organization have asked donors for $10 million to stockpile vaccines and other drugs.
Safeguarding rights and responding robustly to the looming humanitarian disaster in southern Africa should top the agenda of a high level ministerial meeting between members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the European Union (EU), Human Rights Watch says. Human Rights Watch highlighted crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Angola and Swaziland that should be addressed at the meeting, which will take place in Maputo, Mozambique. "It is vital that the SADC take unambiguous and decisive actions on human rights issues," said Bronwen Manby, deputy director of the Africa Division. "Only then will the organization's stated commitments to human rights be taken seriously."
Many thousands of children, adolescents and women in developing countries collect and sort recyclable solid waste from roadsides, bins and dumpsites. This waste comes from household, commercial, institutional and industrial sources. The profits of this sector usually benefit the wholesale buyers of recyclable materials and those involved in their recycling. Meanwhile workers live in poverty and have a limited choice of alternative employment. A report from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine argues that waste-pickers should be recognised for the positive environmental work they do and protected from the risks they face from hazardous waste.
This report sets out to assess the scientific validity of what it calls the WWF's 'doomsday prophecy', as outlined in the NGO's Living Planet Report 2002. The Danish authors argue that WWF has produced one in a long line of articles, stretching back to Malthus' essay on the principle of population, that predict disaster as a result of human demand on natural resources outstripping supply. For a reply to the criticism from the WWF, visit the link
As the food crisis deepens in Southern Africa the rhetoric over the issue of GM food aid continues to dominate the headlines. Eldis has prepared a special feature on GM Food Aid and the crisis in Southern Africa which looks beyond those headlines to the issues which lie at the heart of this complex subject. The guide contains: A guide to the issues; Summaries of the key research with links to the full text documents; The latest news; Current situation reports; Summaries and links to over 100 background papers; Links to other useful sources of information.
Related Links:
* The Impact of GMOs on Sustainable Agriculture
* The Impact of GMOs on Sustainable Agriculture (a rebuttal)
http://www.agbioworld.org/pdf/To_Die_or_not_to_Die.pdf
* WFP Policy on GM Donations
http://www.wfp.org/eb/docs/2002/wfp011823~2.pdf
Starting from the premise that finance is not about money, but about the relationships among people, states, markets and natural environment, this report from Jubilee Research provides three key features so that finance can become a tool for development. The paper warns that: In order to achieve the objectives of global security and meeting basic human development needs, the imbalance between free markets and human and environmental relations should be addressed; FDI scarcely contributes to local economic development, therefore a more democratic control over national and international financial institutions and encouragement of economic self-reliance is required; Since the South is paying the North three times over: in debt repayments, via the flow of mineral, agricultural and biological resources, and through the costs it is bearing from the impact of environmental degradation and climate change, contraction and convergence mechanisms to account for the ecological debt should be implemented.
This paper from Eurodad looks at whether the private sector development addresses the challenges faced within pro-poor development, and draws on past experience of privatisation, especially within the context of privatisation. It emphasises that the sequencing of private sector development policies is crucial and that there are variables that need to be thoroughly considered before embarking on any pro-poor development strategies adapted to the particular country context. These variables include: institutional capacity in the country; the design and efficiency of the country's regulatory framework; distributional mechanisms and safety nets in position to mitigate and minimise negative impacts of reform.
You are invited to participate in an ecumenical gathering in Washington, DC, that begins Sunday evening, February 23, and ends Wednesday afternoon, February 26. The gathering offers two distinct learning/advocacy tracks, one focused on Africa and the other on the Middle East. Both tracks will provide challenging speakers, issue briefings, and advocacy training workshops.
The Society of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians of Nigeria estimates that about 20 000 Nigerian women die from unsafe abortions each year. The figure comes from studies carried out by the society and Nigeria's Ministry of Health. The estimate also tallies with the result of a nationwide survey conducted by Friday Okonofua, dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Benin and executive director of the Women's Health and Action Research Centre in Nigeria. This survey showed that an estimated 610,000 unsafe abortions a year are carried out in Nigeria, and that about half of the 20,000 women who die from the complications of unsafe abortion are adolescents. The death rate from unsafe abortions is thought to be one of the highest in Africa.
The Inter African Network for Human Rights and Development (AFRONET) in its observer status with the African Commission on Human and People's Rights and coordinator of the Southern African Human Rights NGO Network (SAHRINGON) has noted with "deep and great concern" the increase in human rights abuses in the Southern African region. In a submission to the 32nd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the network pointed to HIV/AIDS, land struggles, the situation in the DRC and Angola, famine and election irregularities as cause for concern in the region.
Forty-five countries engaged in the diamond trade finally signed a new scheme to stem the flow of "conflict" diamonds this week. The certification scheme, which will take effect on January 1, is the result of 30 months of negotiations. Alex Yearsley, a representative for Global Witness, which led the campaign against "conflict" diamonds, expressed reservations about the monitoring scheme. But overall, he said,"we are happy with the agreement. It is great that the governments signed up to it." He added: "Hopefully, it will stop a good 80-90% of conflict diamonds."
NGOs and other civil society groups are now accepted by governments and official agencies, as significant contributors to the development process. But, as the profile of NGOs has increased, so too has the need for them to assess the long-term impact of their work. This course will explore the current state of the debate about impact assessment and review current practice and methodologies.
A pioneering and challenging book, which has been highly acclaimed since first publication in Africa; and an important addition to the relatively sparse serious political literature on civil society in Africa. The author formerly received an honorary mention in the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.
When the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka fled Nigeria in 1994, and was sentenced to death in absentia by the military regime of Sani Abacha in 1997, he likened the "liminal but dynamic" state of the writer in exile to a parachutist's free fall. His limbo was ostensibly ended by Abacha's sudden death from a heart attack in 1998 and Nigeria's steps towards democracy. Yet for Soyinka, whose 1970s prison memoir famously proclaimed that "the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny", there can be no true home without justice.
Langa was 26 when he died a few weeks ago. He was a young black guy who was completely open about his homosexuality. Robert Mugabe's worst nightmare. Although he was fearless as a gay activist, he never came to terms with his HIV status. He died quickly once his immune system became depleted. He lost weight and in the end he could not walk. His friends had to visit him at his bedside in a hospice. It is time, Ralph Berold of the WITS HIV/AIDS Campaign and the TAC argues, for each of us to take an active stand against denial and for life.
Torture continues and is not confined to military dictatorships or authoritarian regimes; torture is inflicted in democratic states too. It is also clear that victims of torture are criminal suspects as well as political prisoners, the disadvantaged as well as the dissident, people targeted because of their identity as well as their beliefs. They are women as well as men, children as well as adults. Join Amnesty International's online campaign to stop torture.
Amnesty International is calling on the Liberian government to immediately release Aloysius Toe, a leading human rights activist who was arrested on 4 November 2002 and charged with treason. "Aloysius Toe has done nothing but work legitimately for the defence of fundamental human rights in Liberia," Amnesty International said. "There is no basis to the charge against him and he must be immediately and unconditionally released."
Healers who brew medicines from indigenous plants are using computers to help preserve their knowledge and to provide them with an income.
The Somali peace talks, underway in the Kenyan town of Eldoret, are deadlocked over representation in the various committees which are being set up to discuss the establishment of an all-inclusive government, sources close to the talks told IRIN on Tuesday. Members of the leaders' committee (comprising representatives of faction leaders, the Transitional National Government and five members from civil society), which met on Monday, failed to agree on the number of participants each group would be allocated in the various committees, the sources said.
In a South African first, ten orthopedic surgeons watched a live operation in Australia via the Internet from Johannesburg last week. It was made possible by using fibre optic connectivity and streaming technology provided by Internet Solutions (IS) and The Antfarm.
'101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that IE cannot' - a list of the wonderful features of this under-utilised web browser. I use Mozilla all the time, on Windows and Linux, and I suggest you read Neil Deakin's article and then go to www.mozilla.org to download your free copy!
South African company Scientific Development and Integration produces laser systems bought by the US's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), which discovered the SA company on the internet. Nasa will use the system for trace gas detection in the upper atmosphere.
Residents of Sydenham Heights have been under attack from the City Council since Wednesday, with mass electricity disconnections taking place. The illegitimacy of these disconnections has been confirmed. In terms of the Rental and Housing Act, Section 13 (7) no action should have been taken by Council from the date a complaint was lodged with the Rental Tribunal, until resolution, or for a period of three months.
"Shafted [by Microsoft] for a paltry US$2 000? Not in your ... wildest dreams," writes SchoolNet Namibia founding executive director Joris Komen in an open letter to Microsoft regional manager George Ferreira. In the strongly worded letter, Komen claims Microsoft's offer of free software and a terminal services project to rival SchoolNet's existing Linux system will set SchoolNet Namibia back more than $24 000; a price the organisation is not able or willing to pay.
A rift appears to be developing between the country's largest union federation and the government over the fate of Farm Kalkpan, which hit the headlines after the farm manager, sought the eviction of six families.
Access to at least 900,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) remains "impossible", according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The Ministry of Health has warned that babies who contracted HIV/AIDS through mother-to-child transmission in the mid-1980s are now adolescents and could be innocently passing on the virus to their sexual partners.
“Music is the weapon of the future,” said Fela Kuti. Apt then that a new album, 'Red Hot + Riot' (www.redhotriot.com), released in October 2002, is not only a tribute to the songs and spirit of the Nigerian musician but also the latest use of popular culture in the fight against AIDS. Moreover, the release has added poignancy as Fela Kuti, perhaps the most influential African musician of the 20th century, died of AIDS-related illness in 1997.
Chairperson of the first South African AIDS Conference 2003, Prof Jerry Coovadia, says, "There is a complaint, probably justifiable, that there are too many meetings and conferences on HIV/Aids. While this may seem to be so, we in South Africa are exposed to a catastrophe of massive proportions. This conference aims at nothing less than providing a comprehensive, holistic and precisely relevant programme for all stakeholders, including community representatives, business and the media. There is no equivalent meeting serving such a purpose. This conference leads directly from the hugely successful and landmark AIDS 2000; and one has the organisers promise of a worthy successor to the 2000 conference."
This paper, produced by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) presents DFID's strategy for the achievement of human rights and fundamental freedoms of poor people. The central message is that the International Development Targets can only be achieved through the engagement of poor people in the development processes, which affect their lives. The human rights approach to development means empowering people to take their own decisions, rather than being the passive objects of choices made on their behalf.
The Corruption Fighter's Tool Kit was created to share the experiences of Transparency International's country chapter programmes, best practices, and lessons learned. The aim is to foster discussion, spark ideas, and inspire those fighting corruption around the world. The tool kit presents cases of anti-corruption activities to be replicated or adapted by civil society groups in other countries. Emphasis is on empowering civil society with the wherewithal to engage both the public and private sectors.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) will start a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience if Government has not adopted an HIV/AIDS treatment plan, that includes antiretroviral therapy in the public sector, by the end of February 2003. In a document circulated on the Internet, the TAC said it had initially planned the campaign for December, but had been told that government needed until February to implement a national treatment plan, leading to the decision to postpone the disobedience campaign until February.
About 175 million people currently reside in a country other than where they were born; the equivalent of about 3 percent of the world's population. Since 1975, the number of migrants in the world has more than doubled, with 60 percent now living in the more developed regions. It is estimated that 56 million migrants live in Europe, 50 million in Asia and 41 million in Northern America. This is according to a new feature highlight in the Development Gateway Population and Reproductive Health (POP/RH) Portal which contains links to publications and web sites on migration issues.
This course, applicable to anyone working for private, public or non-profit organisations anywhere in the world, provides participants with an overview of the most significant global environmental, social and economic challenges that face humankind, and an insight into the solutions suggested by the universal commitment to sustainable development.
President Moi has denied charges that Kanu planned to rig the coming General Election. The President said that the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), which organises and conducts the polls, was not under the control of the governing party.
Ethiopia’s anti-AIDS taskforce came under fire on Wednesday for failing to fund projects aimed at tackling the virus – despite a three-year US $59 million loan from the World Bank. The National HIV/AIDS Secretariat has spent just one fifth of the funds in the last two years despite the pandemic sweeping the Horn of Africa country.
A tatty poster peeling off a wall at the Ministry of Trade and Industry depicts Ethiopia as enjoying 13 months of sunshine – a land of golden opportunity. With economic growth rates outstripping almost every other country in Africa, and a vast population, the potential, according to trade officials, clearly exists. However, within the country itself, massive obstacles remain. Businessmen assert that many opportunities are strangled before birth. Economists say despite growth rates in excess of 5 percent, desperately low incomes stand in the way of real long-term economic gains.
A move by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to establish a six-member team for talks with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been hailed as a positive step towards resolving the 16-year insurgency in northern Uganda.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR has said it was not opposed to the plan by the Government to resettle in Yumbe thousands of Sudanese refugees displaced by the Kony rebels attack on their camp on August 5. The UNHCR spokeswoman, Bushra Malik, was reacting to a New Vision story, which said the agency was not convinced about the safety of Ikafe, in Yumbe district where the 15,000 Sudanese refugees, who survived the LRA attack on Acholi-Pii camp in Pader district are to be moved.
The cholera outbreak in Kasai Oriental Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to worsen, with a total of 672 people affected by the epidemic, which broke out on 19 September, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
As far as oil and gas are concerned, agitators for revenue from their proceeds forget to discuss environmental problems emanating from exploration. Some of these problems involve the control of chemical substances capable of causing illness, intensive heat due to gas flaring, air and water pollution. These would possibly lead to extinction of animals in our bushes and all kinds of species in our rivers, streams or ponds. Worse, is the loss of human lives, states this editorial in Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper.