PAMBAZUKA NEWS 80
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 80
Questions are being raised over the legality of the process of distribution of lottery funds to charities and good causes. At the same time, the Minister for Social Development, Zola Skweyiya, this week poured cold water on a plan by Uthingo, the company granted a licence to operate the lottery, to introduce daily draws in November.
Minister of Social Development, Zola Skweyiya and the executive mayor of Thswane, have launched a centre for abused children in Pretoria. Gauteng MEC for Social Welfare Services, Angie Matshego also attended the event.
The Board of the World Bank has approved a $100 million credit facility for the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in Nigeria. The Federal Government is contributing a counterpart fund of $13 million to the project.
Canada will contribute about US$ 900,000 for vital landmine clearance in Mozambique and to support landmine victims in Namibia. Susan Whelan, Canada's minister for international cooperation, made the announcement in Mozambique during a visit.
The International Monetary Fund has set tough conditions for Uganda under a new aid deal approved last week by the fund's board. Among the terms that came with a $17.8m (Shs 32bn) aid support is a requirement that the government submits to the Cabinet a plan to reduce its expenditure by 31 December.
South Africa: Mmino – South African – Norwegian Education and Music programme calls for applications
Mmino is a funding programme aimed at supporting the development of music in South Africa. Funding is available for Music and Education Projects.
Local government administrations installed in occupied provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by rebel forces backed by Rwanda and Uganda survive through a war economy, with mineral, agriculture and forest resources extracted and sold to multinationals via Rwanda and Uganda, according to a paper on local governance in conflict situations. The result, figures presented by the paper show, has been a trading boom for Rwanda and Uganda since they became involved in the war that has engulfed central Africa.
In the aftermath of the mass atrocities in Sierra Leone, the United Nations has passed a resolution to set up a Special Court for the prosecution of human rights violations, as well as a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Write to the UN Secretary General, the President and Attorney General of Sierra Leone, and the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights urging them to ensure that the staff of both bodies are gender-balanced and experienced in dealing with cases of sexual violence.
Angola suffered the most landmine casualties in Southern Africa last year, with 660 people - most of them civilians - killed or injured, according to a new report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). The report said more than 34 million stockpiled antipersonnel mines have been destroyed by 61 states, including seven million in the past year.
Amid claims of "dictatorial behaviour", as well as unprecedented heckling, Namibian President Sam Nujoma on Sunday dropped plans to nominate 21 women to the Central Committee of the ruling SWAPO party.
Women journalists in Eastern and Central Africa have launched their own news Web site to counter what they see as bias in Western and male-dominated news. The decision to launch a site came after fierce debate about gender sensitivity in the media during a recent East African Media Women's Association (EAMWA) workshop in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. The web site address is http://www.eamwa.org
More than 1,000 fearful Burundian refugees have fled their tiny central African nation for Tanzania over the last two weeks, sparking fears that the intensifying conflict between Burundian military and rebel forces could drive out larger numbers.
In a landmark decision that has sweeping implications for Third World development, engineering multinational Acres International of Oakville, Ontario has been convicted by the Lesotho High Court in southern Africa on two counts of bribing a local official to secure contracts on a multibillion dollar dam scheme. Earlier this year, the recipient of the bribes, Lesotho's Masupha Sole, was also convicted.
The Washington consensus, with its emphasis on export-led growth, has failed and it is time for a new development policy agenda that focuses on domestic demand-led growth, argues a discussion paper from Foreign Policy in Focus.
Panos sees the need to have an independent account by journalists and development experts who can reflect the range of perspectives among user communities, the rural poor, government officers, development workers, policy makers, and other stakeholders, as to what 'ICTs for development' means in their societies. These views need to frame the debate around ICTs-enabled development discourses. Panos has been commissioning independent journalists for a decade to write Panos Briefings to encourage and support informed debate on various development issues. As part of the Briefings series, Panos plans to commission journalists and development experts from the South to visit telecentres in their regions.
The worst victims of Robert Mugabe's land seizures are not the few thousand white farming families being evicted from their farms. Those suffering the most are the hundreds of thousands of black farm workers who are losing their jobs, being thrown out of their homes, often violently, and who will make up an enormous new landless class, reports The Guardian.
There was good and bad news for Zambian opposition parties this week when they asked the Supreme Court to nullify last December's election, which President Levy Mwanawasa officially won by the narrowest of margins. The good news was that the Supreme Court was willing to listen to them. The bad news was that with no time limit, any decision by the judges was likely to take a very long time in coming.
The international human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has called on the Eritrean authorities to immediately release a number of political dissidents and journalists who have been in detention for a year.
A journalist with the UN peace-building radio network in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been arrested in the northwestern city of Gbadolite by the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) of Jean-Pierre Bemba. They were angered by a report of Moliba's on the wretched living conditions of thousands of child soldiers serving in the MLC army.
Ministers from the African Union (AU) were criticised on Wednesday for failing to take corruption more seriously. Only some 13 ministers attended a summit of 42 African countries aimed at tackling corruption.
Renewed ethnic tensions in the Gucha, Transmara and Migori districts of western Kenya, in which several people have been killed since last week, have been linked to crucial presidential and parliamentary elections expected later this year.
A process of "villagisation" is slowly taking place in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Burundi's central province of Gitega and the northern province of Ngozi, according to humanitarian sources.
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zambia expects to repatriate about 40,000 Angolan refugees next year. UNHCR Zambia spokesman Kelvin Shimo told IRIN that the voluntary repatriation was likely to begin when the rainy season ends.
Millions of people in 45 coffee-growing countries are facing economic ruin due to collapsing world prices, according to Oxfam, who have launched a campaign on the issue. Oxfam says the benefit of aid and debt relief is being severely undermined. For example, Ethiopia’s coffee income dropped by $110m compared to the $58m it is set to save in debt relief this year.
The reality is that children's lives are under threat in prison. The worst cases appear to be those of, what the correctional services department defines as, children awaiting trial. At the end of July this year there were 1803 sentenced prisoners under the age of 18 in custody, with another 2157 who were still awaiting trial.
Kenya's NGO forum, led by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, has called on African Elephant Range States to oppose the reopening of the ivory trade at the 12th Conference of Parties for Convention on the International in Endangered Species in November in Santiago, Chile.
It is widely assumed that women are not necessarily bread winners and are therefore not entitled to inherit property. This has created widespread confrontations. Human rights and non-governmental organisations are now crusading especially for the protection of widows in property rights disputes.
Civil Resources Development and Documentation Centre (CIR-DDOC), an NGO in Abakaliki, has urged women to show more interest in politics to boost female representation in governance.
In this book a group of distinguished authors explodes the defeatist myth that ‘there is no alternative’ to corporate sponsored globalization. Theoreticians and activists from feminist, environmental, anti-imperialist and anti-racist struggles across five continents report on existing community-based initiatives, and demonstrate how we can all defy the creed of corporate globalization.
Cameroon's ruling party won 16 out of 17 seats in parliamentary re-elections held on Sunday, after irregularities in the original poll in June, Cameroon Radio and Television reported on Tuesday.
Although modern African literature and music have become well known in the West, through the contributions of such famous authors as Chinua Achebe and Bessie Head and such popular musicians as King Sunny Ade and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the continent's vast body of modern visual arts has been little explored. In New Currents, Ancient Rivers Jean Kennedy surveys African art of the last forty years, offering an expansive perspective on the visual arts of the continent. Just as ancient rivers flow through the modern African landscape, so too do the rituals and traditions of the past run deeply through modern African art. The past is able to coexist in vibrant synthesis with the present largely because of a critical constant in African culture, the acceptance of change.
The Third Arusha Book festival is being held from 16 to 21 September at the Arusha Regional Library premises. The festival, supported by the Book Development Council of Tanzania, is aimed at cultivating the habit of reading books among the youth and public in general.
Toxic waste from some 120,000 tons of unused pesticides in Africa is threatening peoples' health and the environment, a U.N. food agency said Wednesday.
Critics of the Anambra state government in southeastern Nigeria have been receiving death threats following the assassination of Barnabas Igwe and his wife on September 1, 2002, Human Rights Watch says. "There is strong, credible evidence that Igwe and his wife were targeted for political reasons - because of Igwe's and the NBA's public criticism of the Anambra state government's performance," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.
The Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) for ICT initiatives and ICT evaluation is an innovative gender analysis tool produced by the APC Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) for practitioners who share a commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment in ICTs. GEM provides a means for determining whether ICTs are really improving women's lives and gender relations as well as promoting positive change at the individual, institutional, community and broader social levels.
In partnership with the Presbyterian Men Fellowship Kinoo Parish, Kenya and the Coalition on Violence Against Women-Kenya (COVAW-K), FEMNET will conduct a one day conference to sensitise Kenyan male gender activists and advocates in order to create a critical mass of men who support the empowerment of women and principals of gender equality, development and human rights. Participants will be drawn from universities, religious organisations, professional groups and the media.
The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and the International Commission of Jurists will organise a workshop on human rights litigation in Africa. The bilingual (English/French) workshop will address issues critical to human rights litigation at both the national and international levels, such as funding for litigation, locus stand, assessing impartiality of the court and other fair trial issues, press strategies in relation to litigation, and use of international treaties.
On 19 September 2002, Sina Sebetha, an Edenvale traffic officer in Gauteng province, threatened "Sunday Times" journalist Sabelo Ndlangisa. She told the journalist she would make him "vanish if he did not leave her alone."
Heavy gunfire and explosions rattled the commercial capital of Ivory Coast on Thursday as members of the security forces apparently staged a mutiny. Shooting was reported around military bases in three cities in the center and north of the country.
The United States is preparing to take on suspected al-Qaeda members believed to be hiding in Yemen and has sent 800 US troops and an unknown number of special forces operatives to Djibouti, the tiny African nation facing Yemen.
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank's debt relief initiatives have failed to help Uganda sustainably manage its foreign debt as its creditors outside the European Union declined to agree to relief terms spelt out by the Bretton Woods institutions. Uganda says the debt had instead increased. It is currently estimated at $3.6 billion.
A Bill presented to the Kenyan Parliament suggests that those found guilty of causing the transmission of HIV/AIDS should be jailed. The HIV/AIDS Prevention Bill proposes three-year jail terms and will cover not only sexual transmission, but also transmission through contaminated instruments, health care supplies and physical contact.
A commission has been established by the Burundi government to investigate the massacre of 183 people on 9 September by unknown gunmen in Itaba Commune, central Gitega Province.
Cholera has claimed nine more lives in Zimbabwe's populous Masvingo province, bringing the death toll to 19 since the outbreak was reported last week.
A discussion list arising from the journal of the same name. The list is for anyone "interested in developing critical insights on class composition, struggles and resistance in South Africa in the broader context of globalized capitalism.". "...it is by no means confined to experts on South Africa; it rather aims to locate the contents of 'Debate' in the broader worldwide confrontation against neo-liberalism." To subscribe send an email to [email protected]
Leave the Subject line blank. In the Message area put:
subscribe debate [your EMail address]
Many charities are increasingly turning to e-mailed newsletters to help them reach out to their supporters: to educate them, to spur them to advocacy, and to encourage donations. E-newsletters can also help charities save on printing and mailing costs, compared to print newsletters.
In Tanzania, a pioneering project seeks to empower farmers and strengthen rural economies through e-business. The Business Information Services (BIS) Project aims to position itself as a reliable source of information of business value to farmers and small and medium-scale enterprises in the rural areas. The Project intends to harness information and communication technologies (ICTs) to narrow the digital divide between urban and rural areas where for example mobile phones - that people in town take for granted - are scarce or non-existent.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 79
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 79
The African Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies is seeking applicants for the fifth training course on "The Use of International Human Rights Procedures for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women in Africa." The training course will be held on October 7-12, 2002, in Banjul, The Gambia, and intends to build the capacities of young human rights activists, particularly women, on the use of regional and international instruments to promote and protect the rights of women in Africa. The course will be conducted in English and French.
A new MA Program - Human Rights and Democratization - is a one-year inter-disciplinary program aiming to train human rights professionals in the field, including fact-finding, reporting, monitoring, education, lobbying, and research. Participants will obtain a thorough understanding of the legal framework, human rights instruments, and enforcement mechanisms in South Africa, Africa, and internationally.
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has introduced the AISI Media Awards to encourage more informed coverage of the information society and ICT for development issues in Africa as part of the its AISI Outreach and Communication Programme. The AISI Media Awards is aimed at individual journalists and media institutions based in Africa that are “promoting journalism which contributes to a better understanding of the information society in Africa".
IRC is seeking experienced development professionals to work in IRC country programs undergoing the transition from relief to development.
May I congratulate you on such a comprehensive and informative news service.
"Aid Workers Exchange" is an experimental weekly e-mail for knowledge sharing amongst field staff in humanitarian relief and international development. To subscribe write to [email protected] with the title "subscribe".
As the food crisis gets worse in most parts of Swaziland, many people, particularly women, have resorted to prostitution and crime as the only means of survival in the face of the ravaging famine hitting Swaziland. A majority of families along the Lavumisa-Manzini highway are now giving away their female children, some as young as 12 years, to truck drivers who pay at least R50 for a round of sexual intercourse.
The People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) of Swaziland has condemned the decision to spend $45m on a luxury jet for the mountain kingdom's monarch. "We are outraged by the government's decision to secretly and lavishly spend taxpayers' money and aid funds in this manner whilst tens of thousands of Swazis are severely affected by the current drought," the organisation said in a statement.
A suitable large farm or piece of bushland in either Tanzania or Botswana is being sought to set up a Carnivore Rescue & Rehab Centre. Further, those keen on setting up this project will need assistance in terms of funding/sponsorship. If anyone knows of such a property or has suggestions/can assist with the financial aspect, please get in touch.
The 6th Highway Africa conference on Journalism and New Media in Africa came to a close in Johannesburg, South Africa last Friday, with the adoption of a charter articulating key priorities for ensuring the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the continent's development.
With the growth of our programme in Sierra Leone it has become necessary to recruit a Deputy to the Country Programme Manager. We are therefore looking for an experienced manager to ensure that the programme is to a high standard, as well as playing an important deputising role.
Are you looking for a job where you are an integral part of a forward thinking innovative development agency in Africa? Do you believe that people are the primary actors in their own survival and development? Do you want to be part of an organisation that works in common cause to enable people living on the margins of African societies to exercise their rights?
Human Rights Watch has condemned the imposition of a death by stoning sentence on a man in the northern state of Jigawa in Nigeria. Earlier this month, an appellate Sharia court in northern Nigeria upheld a stoning sentence against a 30-year old woman for having sex outside marriage.
ICTs have enormous potential to benefit girls and women in terms of enhanced income-generation opportunities, employment, and improved quality of life, but because technologies are not gender neutral, it is important to advocate for ICT strategies to reduce and manage the potential for ICTs to create economic and social exclusion and reinforce existing social disparities.' -- gender activist, Gillian Marcelle, in her chapter, 'Getting Gender into African ICT Policy: A Strategic View' which appears in the book 'Gender and the Information Revolution in Africa' (IDRC, 2000)
In Peace (Or Pieces)
Comrade, since you say
We can't eat democracy with
All those sour choices
Pinstriped lies
And decorated fools
Since you say
Only war will do
Tell me then -
How else can we dream in peace?
How else?
Can we dream?
In Peace?
© Akwasi Aidoo
Pokuase, 21 August 2002
On 21 August 2002, Bright Sonani, a senior reporter for the "Malawi News", was assaulted by three unidentified men who accused him of writing stories that were critical of the government.
At the 8th International Women's World Conference in Uganda recently, delegates gathered to address the issues of violence against women in war and armed conflict. The Conference identified the need to raise the volume of women's voices in the peace movement, and build a critical mass of women to implement various UN resolutions at global, regional and national levels.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed deep concern about the climate for independent journalism in Niger, following the recent arrests of two journalists and a presidential decree restricting the media.
Less than 10 percent of the habitat now inhabited by the great apes of Africa will be left undisturbed by 2030 if road building, mining camps and other infrastructure developments continue at current levels says a new report to the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
This course, taking place between 3 and 16 November in Kampala, Uganda, is intended for service providers in youth centers, teachers, and tutors/wardens in educating institutions, and will equip participants with skills to assist adolescents in managing their reproductive health lives.
South Africa is to set up an advisory group to ensure that women’s interests are adequately addressed in all spheres of science and technology policy, according to Bridgett Mabandla, deputy minister in the country’s Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST).
A credible strategy now exists to get every child into school. But the strategy will be worthless unless it is backed by major additional resources from G8 countries. New figures show that aid for basic education remains dismally low. The Global Campaign for Education argues in a new paper that it is time for the G8 to move beyond public relations gimmicks and produce a real breakthrough for the world's poor.
Recent studies show that many children in developing countries are leaving school without learning to read, write or do basic sums. The Global Campaign for Education argues that this is an injustice and a waste of human potential that must be challenged. Improving the quality of public education is also one of the fundamental actions - along with expanding access and abolishing fees and charges - needed to achieve the 2015 goal of universal completion of primary school.
Fistula affects an estimated 2 million women worldwide, with 50,000 to 100,000 new cases each year. The overwhelming majority are in Africa. Nigeria alone has an estimated one million victims. Another 200,000 are in Ethiopia. In Niger, the condition is so common, it is the leading cause of divorce nationwide.
More than 10,000 girls drop out of school annually due to unwanted pregnancies, with those in day and mixed schools being the most affected. Some girls are said to opt for abortion to remain in school, risking their lives in the process.
The study, published by UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre, draws on nine country case studies from Africa and Asia to examine the damage caused by HIV/AIDS to the well-being of children and families and to the smooth functioning of the societies in which they live.
Set up in 1985, Comic Relief exists to tackle poverty and promote social justice. In seven Red Nose Days, we have raised over £170 million, every penny of which is now hard at work helping some of the poorest people across the UK and in Africa. We are looking for experienced and enthusiastic people to join our Africa grants committee, which advises our Trustees on spending this money as effectively as possible.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was “a day late and a dollar short” as far as making a positive difference is concerned, charges Africa Action. "Powell owes it to Africa to be honest about the Bush Administration’s lack of interest in fighting poverty and protecting the environment in Africa. But that is not possible while he still loyally serves what has become a very anti- African administration," said Africa Action Director Salih Booker.
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, has launched a major military offensive in southern Sudan, ordering his army to act without restraint. Peace talks in the Kenyan town of Machakos collapsed on Monday after the rebels seized a key garrison town.
If not for its oil, Angola would scarcely warrant a second look from most potential investors. Riven by Africa's longest postcolonial war, the country has distinguished itself mainly for poverty, corruption and, most recently, the threat of famine. But the blessings of geography and plentiful crude reserves have earned Angola increasing attention from the United States as Washington seeks to diversify sources of U.S. oil imports away from the volatile Middle East.
About 300 state accountants will be trained under a scheme to prevent fraud and mismanagement launched by the Ministry of Finance and the Finnish Embassy. The training is part of a project to strengthen financial controls in Namibia. It has been sponsored by the Finnish government to the tune of 488 000 euros, about N$5,2 million, between 1998 and 2002.
Traffic police are the most corrupt, a new report on corruption reveals. Traffic officers were found to have developed numerous creative ways of soliciting for bribes, giving the entire police force a bad name.
The last two and half years of elected civilian government in Nigeria have witnessed an alarming spate of violence and gross human rights violations. In over 50 separate and documented incidents, over 10 000 Nigerians have reportedly been victims of extra-judicial executions, says a new report from the World Organisation Against Torture.
High levels of corruption continue to persist in Kenya despite various efforts made to fight the phenomenon, according to two newly released reports.
A U.N. plan to cut poverty while saving the earth's resources agreed on last Wednesday includes measures to replenish fish stocks and slow the rate at which rare species of plants and animals are being wiped out. Many leading scientists and the United Nations itself have painted a gloomy picture of the planet's future. Some experts say up to 50 percent of the world's species could be wiped out by human activity in this century.
The Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, Dr. Ghanim Alnajjar, has called on local leaders, civil society organizations, and the international community to work together to address serious human rights problems throughout Somalia, and advocated for the establishment of national and regional Independent Human Rights Commissions.
A South African archive of memory cloths created by 1000 women, belonging to the Zulu community and living in the region of KwaZulu Natal, is a project conceptualized by Andries Botha as a part of his ongoing exploration of the relationship between creativity and society.
In a big win for women's right to reproductive health, the final World Summit declaration included language linking women's health services to human rights, rather than "cultural and religious values."
If you would like to participate in the online discussion: African Women and NEPAD, please send email to FEMNET at [email protected] indicating your interest in this discussion.
Very interesting and very comprehensive. I think that it will take me a while to find my way around and to get to know the Kabissa, Fahamu, Pambazuka and Sangonet sites, but I suspect that my efforts will prove to be worthwhile.
Well, it's over. People will be sifting through the ashes for some time and life will go on, but a milestone this was not. If the environment is to survive, it will be despite this conference, rather than because of it.
A full 10 percent of the land mass of the African country of Gabon will be set aside for a system of national parks, the nation's government announced last Wednesday. Gabon, which had no national park system until this week, contains some of the most pristine tropical rainforests on earth, home to gorillas, chimpanzees, forest elephants and a host of other wildlife.
The Watchman International Network is organizing two international conferences on "The role of NGOs in the current political climate".
Fifty radio and television reporters are receiving training on HIV/AIDS and the techniques of educating the population in the Central African Republic (CAR).
Around 150 activists belonging to Sudan's opposition have been arrested during the past two weeks, according to the OMCT. The organisation fears that the detainees will be subjected to torture and requests concerned individuals and organisations to put pressure on the Sudanese authorities.
"Passport to Dignity," a human rights workbook, provides a comprehensive framework of the Beijing Platform for Action and recounts particular examples of women's initiatives throughout the world. It also has exercises that guide readers through a path of personal and group reflection on how to use human rights as a tool for systemic analysis, and social and economic transformation.
Calling HIV/AIDS a "silent holocaust," Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute and a special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said last Saturday that African nations should devote their resources to fighting HIV/AIDS before servicing foreign debts.
Nearly 100 representatives from 14 Central and East African nations have met at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the impact of HIV/AIDS on the region and to develop a plan of action.
The lives of more than six million children are at immediate risk in Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique due to a crippling combination of drought, hunger, illness and HIV/AIDS. UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, Carol Bellamy, toured drought-stricken Southern Africa before attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.
The latest report from Jubilee Research (JR) shows how the debt relief granted so far has resulted in large increases in health and education spending in Africa. Entitled "Relief Works" the report also demonstrates that there has been no corresponding increase in arms purchases, showing that the proceeds of debt relief do indeed effectively contribute to increased development.
The recent decision issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that there is “insufficient evidence” to proceed with the prosecution of Col. Léonidas Rusatira at this stage, demands further explanation, says the organisation African Rights. Col. Rusatira was indicted by the ICTR on five counts of genocide and crimes against humanity and arrested in Belgium on 15 May 2002.
Nigeria has said it can no longer afford to service its $33bn foreign debts because of plunging oil revenues and the failure of some of its privatisation plans.
I would like to subscribe to your weekly newsletter through my email address. Your newsletter is very good.